Both Beterbiev and Vergil Ortiz Jr came in with an unbeaten record and 100% KO streak without ever going the distance until they finally ran into someone that gave them their toughest fights to date and barely scraped by winning via Majority Decision. Whose performance were you more impressed with considering that it was their first time seeing the final bell and forced to dig deep?
In a way, Beterbiev vs Bivol was always going to be, in some way, underwhelming. When the stakes are so high and the money-line is so tight, and when it's so hyped up, anything short of an all-out war was bound to be somewhat unimpressive considering how high the bar was set. Both Ortiz and Beterbiev showed incredible doggedness and relentlessness though, but Ortiz's performance becomes a shade more impressive when you account for him having so many health complications and the fact he came off the canvas twice.
Ortiz is prime and fought a Solid Fighter. Beterbiev is past prime and fought a p4p fighter and didnt suffer 2 KDs. Take a guess.
I think both Beterbiev and Ortiz showed some real mental strength that should be appreciated. For Ortiz to get dropped twice for the first time he doesn't panic and instead just roars back to fight more furiously against a hard puncher like Bohachuk. With Beterbiev I was impressed with how he wasn't getting frustrated and still took his time to pick his shots and coming back more strong as the fight progressed against a master boxer.
Obviously Beterbiev beating Bivol. Bivol is a p4p talent & Beterbiev is 40. Ortiz is in his prime & Bohachuck isn't on the same level as Bivol.